From a Washington Post article on January 14, 2009: “The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a ‘life-threatening condition.’ ‘We tortured [Mohammed al-] Qahtani,’ said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. ‘His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that’s why I did not refer the case’ for prosecution. Crawford…is the first senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly state that a detainee was tortured.”
– Bob Woodward, “Detainee Tortured, Says U.S. Official,” The Washington Post, Jan. 14, 2009